The Black Keys’ New Album ‘Definitely Gonna Happen’ In 2013

The Black Keys are the Energizer Bunnies of rock ‘n roll. Constantly touring yet always itching to get back into Dan Auerbach’s Nashville studio, the duo revealed in an interview with Radio.com that they’ll begin work on their eighth album, a follow-up to 2011’s El Camino, early next year.

Drummer Patrick Carney gave us a run-down of the events to come in their world: “We’re going to start making a new album in January and we’re going to tour a little more in the spring. Our plan is the have the new album done by the end of spring or earlier, then hopefully take a few months off to do normal things like go to bed early and wake up early, walk the dog, that kind of stuff. Then we’ll probably be back on the road starting next fall.”

Carney may take a few months off to live the quiet life with his new bride in his new home of Nashville, but he’s adamant about the band’s next album dropping in 2013. The pace shouldn’t be surprising for longtime fans of the band: In the 10 years since the band started as a basement project in Akron, Ohio, the Keys have released seven albums, a collaboration project (Blakroc), two EPs, and traveled the world multiple times. El Camino, the Keys’ most commercially successful album to date, dropped right before Christmas 2011, launching them into a full-on frenzy as 2012 began.

“It [an album] is definitely gonna happen in 2013,” Carney said. “It’s just a matter of how long it take sue to make the album and deciding when we want to get back on the road. With El Camino, it was mastered and mixed around June 15th [of 2011]. We were aiming for a September release date with that record, but we decided that if we pushed it back to December, we could end up having a kind of low-key three months. It didn’t work out that way because we ended up playing all these shows and doing a three-week promo trip. Whenever we try to build in breaks and time off, it doesn’t work out. But next year, we’re also committed to a vacation.”

As for the next album’s producer, the band will likely reunite with the man who’s helped transform tweak their sound for the masses, Danger Mouse – if he has time for them.

“I talked to him [Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton] on the phone a couple weeks ago to see what his schedule is like,” Carney sad. “If we ever work with a producer, it’s always going to be him. We’ve been working with him since 2007, since Attack & Release, and we’re all really good friends. But he’s also really busy, producing so many records lately, so hopefully he has time. He’s producing U2’s record – that takes priority over us! [Laughs]”